MPC 2500 HELP WITH RAM + HARD DRIVE > PLEASE HELP

Hey wutsup. Ive had my mpc for awhile and am a mad noob and am just getting back into it. A 2500 BTW. I just bought a INFINEON 256 MB 133Mhz SDRAM PC133 SODIMM 256MB 144 PIN For my RAM. My Questions are does that RAM look alright? AND, i know this will sound so stupid, but what the **** is the difference between the ram and the hard drive? now that im updating my RAM, Is that good enough? Why should i update my hard drive too? I know the ram allows you to sample more and have more memory so it doesnt say "insufficient memory" so you dont gota delete samples to make room. So what does the increased hard drive do? Can someone PLEASE clear this up for me in understandable english for a dumb noob like me to get. I bought the MPC BIBLE and had know idea id need all these upgrades to do what i want. And even though its suppose to be clear, He said it in a pretty confusing way. DO I NEED BOTH UPGRADES OR WHICH ONES IF NOT ? DAMMIT.... YOUR HELP IS GREATLY **** APPRECIATED. PLEASE AID MY STUPIDITY, You all FRIGGIN Rock
-Thanks

get the RAM so you can load up more samples/extend sample time. Get the Hard Drive to save projects/samples/breaks/etc.

your RAM will be erased everytime you turn your MPC off. You can save on your Hard Drive and you'll have it there when you start your MPC up next time

pigpen nailed it.. but I will get SIMPLE on ya.

First off the ram you chose is perfect. If Im right you got it on Ebay for 9 bucks..
Cause so did I and its working fine in my 2500.

RAM is RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY... it is temporary memory only.. If you sample a bunch of stuff, then turn off your mpc, it will NOT be there next time.

On the other hand, If you save those samples to a HARD DRIVE.. then you can access and load them again..
A hard drive is a mechanical device that permanently stores data.

The BIGGEST piece of advice I can give you is to READ THE MANUAL, and the Bible..
But the manual is pretty simple if you follow along with it. If you find it confusing, just re-read the subject matter SLOWLY and while in front of your mpc so You can walk through the steps while reading.

as for your ram your fine.. about the hard drive.. you dont HAVE to have a hard drive. you can purchase a couple of Compact Flash memory cards instead. A good one would be a Kingston 8GB 133x CF card. Its like 25 bucks with free shipping at new egg, or like 30 locally at most places that sell CF cards. the CF card and a hard drive both save data permanently, but one is a mechanical drive and one is not, and is just Flash memory. But Hard drive are much larger in terms of how much data then can hold. for example 8GB of space on a CF card versus 80GB on a hard drive.

the benefit of a Hard drive is more space, the con is slower read and write speeds when data is being read and written.
The CF card holds less data, but is a bit faster when being read and written too, since it has no mechanical parts inside.

I think FOR NOW just get a CF card, since your just starting out, you wont have very large sample libraries and programs. Just make sure you read and learn about trimming your samples, so you can discard the unwanted portions of your samples, so as to not waste valuable ram and hd or cf card space.

SO, a recap.. You sample a snare drum from a cd lets say.. that info immediately gets recorded to the RAM..
no matter how much you tweak, edit, or play with that snare drum sample it is only in the RAM.
Then once you are done with the sample, you press "Mode" and hit Pad3.. and save it to your CF card or Hard drive.
(see manual for saving operations)

I think about covers it for now.. if you have more questions holla back

PEACE

Thanks alot man, you all have helped me alot, much love.

Hey guys,

i'm a noob to this forum and the mpc....i just have a quick question.....

The ram u guys are using is 256 MB - I thought the mpc 2500 was only upgradable to 128 RAM max???

disregard above....read the sticky......all is explained.....thanks

Beat_Juggler wrote:disregard above....read the sticky......all is explained.....thanks

holy sheeeeeeet!!! there is a god!